12 beautiful airline ads from the 'Mad Men' era

In the “Mad Men” TV series, fictional ad agency Sterling Cooper memorably creates ads and concepts for airlines including Mohawk and American Airlines.

Back in the 1960s it was a creative director’s dream to land an airline account. As Paul Jarvis, British Airways’ museum archivist, told us: “It wasn’t really until the late sixties that the British public considered going abroad for a holiday. It was a very exciting time, when the world was still being discovered.”

The British Airways Heritage centre has a vast stock of posters from over the decades, and has kindly allowed us access to its treasure trove of 1960s and 1970s ads, back when the brand was known as the British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC.)

This ad showcased one of the early passenger flights to Rome.

This advert was co-produced between the BOAC and the Hong Kong tourist association.

The poster came from the 1960s and advertised Bermuda as a holiday destination from the UK.

This late 1950s poster advertised trips from the USA to Scotland.

British Airways also flew to Mexico.

This BOAC poster advertised flights to Israel.

This late 1960s poster from BOAC was created in association with Frames Tours, which was a big travel agency of the era, advertising holidays to the Caribbean.

This early 1960s poster advertised London as a holiday destination.

This is another poster from the early 1960s, which promoted Australia and New Zealand as countries you can now reach by air.

This 1959 poster advertised safari holidays.

Here's the VC10 aircraft. The tagline to promote the aeroplane was 'Swift, Silent and Serene' because the engines were at the back of the craft.

This ad for British European Airways proudly showed off the Trident aircraft, which was the 1960s equivalent of the short-haul Airbus family.